A while back I featured a glorious recipe for feijoa and manuka honey ice cream from The Kitchen Dispensary. Along with that perfectly New Zealand temptation is this recipe for an uncooked and dairy free raw feijoa cheesecake. Enjoy.
RAW FEIJOA CHEESECAKE
Ingredients (approximate measurements)
Base
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 2 cups dried dates
Filling
- 3 cups raw cashews
- juice of ½ lemon
- ¼ teaspoons Himalayan or sea salt
- 1 cup cold pressed coconut oil
- 3 – 4 tablespoon of raw organic honey or agave nectar to taste
- 2 cups of chopped feijoas for the filling and 2 cups for the topping
Method
Base
- Blend the almonds in a food processor until they are like fine breadcrumbs (save a couple of tablespoons aside to dust the cake tin)
- Chop the dates and add to the almond meal.
- Blend until fully combined like a cookie dough.
- Brush the base and sides of a springform cake tin with coconut oil and dust with ground almonds. You could also cut a circle of baking paper to line the tin.
- Press the date/almond dough into the base of the tin.
Filling
- Soak the cashews in water for 2-3 hours.
- Place the sealed jar of coconut oil in a bowl of hot water to melt for about 10 minutes.
- Drain and rinse the cashews Add all filling ingredients to a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the tin on top of the base.
- Place in the refrigerator to set for a couple of hours.
- Serve with fresh chopped feijoas on top.
FEIJOA FEIJOA 
Tried it and it turned out great! We’d been given a whole quart jar of very high quality coconut oil – this could make all the difference. I went to get a jar from the local organic shop a couple of days ago and got a real fright, hoping that the 400ml tub I got from Moore Wilsons ($) will be fine for the next attempt at it.
Two possibilities spring to mind for the bad result – using kremelta might not be so good after tastewise, but also the method of introducing the oil. I had the jar standing in hot water for quite a bit longer, until I could pour off an entirely clear liquid cupful. I poured this straight into the already whizzing other ingredients so that the oil didn’t get a chance to set before incorporating/ emulsifying. In future I’ll warm the cup beforehand too. Thanks for the warning Alesha; by the time I came back to check the recipe I was pretty much commited to it & your warning made me a lot more wary about how I put it together. I hope it doesn’t require the most expensive oil, as it’s already not cheap (but worth it I assure you!)
My heartfelt thanks to you for stopping back to post this. I was thinking about whether I should remove this recipe so I am a bit chuffed to hear your success. I think when creating raw food that the ingredients have to be exceptionally fresh and oils can go rancid so easily. Even the oils in nuts. And perhaps like pavlova there is an optimum state of blending in this recipe, and your tip for the extra heat meant the oil is suspended and distributed more evenly. Great tips though for future cooks. And I am VERY envious that you have feijoas this time of the year.
Sadly I followed the recipe exactly.
And the out come was quite foul. :(
The coconut oil left a bad after taste.
I had hoped to use it in a compatition,
my tutor and other classmates spat it out.
Thanks for letting me know Alesha. I haven’t made this one yet but it looks so good. I expected it to be creamy and all the flavours blended and not be dominated by the oil – so that is disappointing to hear. Am wondering if there are any differences in brands of coconut oil or if the oil can go rancid?? If I get one more bad review I will remove the recipe. It’s odd because it’s featured on multiple sites and I would expect it to be popular. But then I’ve had big name chef’s recipes go wonky on me so you have to wonder if there’s an error in the recipe writing! Sorry about the competition – it sounds funny written like that but I’m sure it wasn’t at the time.